Better Planet Education

Where we came in

When we first met YPTE, they were facing significant challenges with maintaining and updating their existing website, which was running on an outdated version of Ruby on Rails that could no longer be supported in-house. Instead of simply patching up the old system, they decided to use this challenge as an opportunity for a complete rebrand and digital refresh.

The key requirement were:

• Defining Better Planet Education’s new brand identity
• Implementing a CMS solution that was intuitive and easy to maintain for non-technical users
• Preserving their significant organic traffic throughout the domain migration
• Gaining deeper insights into user behaviour, while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations, given the young audience
• Migrating their extensive library of educational resources

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What we delivered

User-centered approach

User experience was at the heart of our process. We were fortunate to work with a client that valued a user-first approach as much as we do.

Our discovery phase focused on defining our key personas - young people and educators - and understanding their needs, struggles, and expectations. We mapped out user journeys optimised for different age groups and engaged in a tight, iterative cycle of learning, building, and testing with users. This ensured we delivered a website that was both engaging and effective for its target audience.

Brand redesign

Working closely with the client, we explored a range of creative concepts before refining them into a brand identity that resonated with Better Planet Education’s audience.

We designed bespoke logos for Better Planet Education and Better Planet Schools and developed a visual language that was both professional and fun. The website was enhanced with custom assets, animations, and cutouts - creating an engaging, dynamic experience for younger users.

SEO strategy

A website redesign can significantly impact SEO, especially when combined with a domain name change. While some short-term fluctuation in rankings is inevitable, we took strategic steps to minimise risk and preserve organic traffic, including:

• Conducting in-depth research on high-performing content and keywords to ensure valuable SEO content was retained.
• Defining a clear URL structure ****to maintain a logical content hierarchy.
• Setting up redirects across both domains to avoid broken links and lost traffic.
• Notifying search engines of the domain transfer to help maintain authority.
• Updating high-value backlinks wherever possible.

User friendly CMS

‍Given the client’s need for an easy-to-maintain CMS, we recommended Webflow, a platform we’ve used successfully on many projects.What we like about Webflow is that it allows us to design and develop websites efficiently, making the process cost-effective while giving us full control over the design and content structure.

Website development and data migration

With the designs finalised, implementing them in Webflow was a smooth process. As with all our projects, we followed WCAG AAA accessibility standards, ensuring the website was inclusive and usable for the widest possible audience.

A key client request was better visibility into their user demographics, so we designed a custom welcome message that prompted visitors to identify themselves (as primary school students, secondary school students, teachers, parents, or others). This data was then tracked in Google Analytics, providing the client with deeper insights into their audience.

Another major challenge was migrating YPTE’s extensive library of downloadable educational resources. While we encountered a few unexpected hurdles, we successfully transferred all content into the new CMS, turning the process into a valuable learning experience for our team.

Ongoing support

A core ethos of our work is that no partner ever feels 'locked in' to working with us. We build every product in a way that ensures our partner has full ownership and control. We are also happy though that many partners appreciate working with us and ask for our support through a Service Level Agreement. We have a partnership now in place with Better Planet, implementing enhancements as we continue to learn from users.

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Impact

• ‍An engaging, visually appealing website that is easy to navigate for the different age groups.
• Increased visibility into user demographics through custom tracking, allowing the client to better tailor content.
• Preserved high levels of organic traffic, ensuring a smooth transition despite the domain change.
• Improved accessibility, meeting AAA standards to serve a broad and inclusive audience.

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Our unique value

This project was more than just a rebrand or a website overhaul, it was about building a strong digital foundation for an evolving organisation.

• A truly collaborative approach: Our close partnership with the client allowed us to fine-tune every aspect of the user experience, ensuring the end result reflected their vision and mission.
• SEO expertise beyond the basics: Rather than just managing the domain migration, we developed a comprehensive strategy to safeguard search rankings and future-proof their content.
• User-driven design: By involving young people and educators in the testing process, we ensured that the final product was engaging and genuinely useful for its audience.
• Accessibility at the core: By adhering to AAA accessibility standards, we made sure that environmental education was available to everyone, regardless of their abilities.

At the heart of this project was a shared commitment to education and sustainability - a vision we were proud to help bring to life.